Healing Walls: Victim’s Journey

Healing Walls: Victim’s Journey is one of two murals created in a partnership among inmate-artists at the State Correctional Institute at Graterford, Victims of Crime, and Victim’s Advocates. The Healing Walls murals by Cesar Viveros and Parris Stancell depict both victims’ and inmates’ struggles to change patterns of crime within their communities and themselves.

Originally conceived as a single mural created by victims and inmates, the two groups found it impossible to unite over a single, unified design. Instead, two similar murals were created adjacent to one another on the 3000 block of Germantown Avenue in North Philadelphia.

Cindy Burnstein and Tony Heriza’s documentary film Concrete Steel and Paint tells the story behind the creation of these two murals.